1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to electronic circuits, and more particularly to repeater circuits.
2. Description of the Related Art
As integrated circuit (IC) technology advances, the speeds at which IC's operate increases while operating voltages generally decrease. As such, the distances at which signals propagate on a die become an increasingly important factor to consider in IC design. At longer distances, on-die interconnects between a transmitter and a receiver can develop enough resistance and enough capacitance that the signal transition at the receiver can be adversely affected. Excessive propagation delay across a long signal interconnect can affect the transition at the receiver in terms of both timing and voltage levels. For example, a signal that propagates too slowly across an interconnect may in some cases not allow sufficient set-up and hold time for the receiver to properly transition from one logic level to another. Furthermore, a slow transition can cause crowbar currents in some receivers, which can lead to increased power consumption and may further lead to circuit damage in more severe cases.
In order to combat the negative effects of long signal interconnects, repeater circuits may be implemented. More particularly, repeater circuits may be placed along a signal path between a transmitter and receiver, effectively breaking a single interconnect into two or more interconnects. In such a configuration, repeater circuits may overcome some of the problems of resistance and capacitance that would be present in a single signal interconnect, and may further cause faster transition times at the receiver.
Repeater circuits may be simple or complex. The simplest interconnect circuits may be implemented using an inverter, with a double inverter (i.e. a buffer) being an alternative if no logical inversion is desired. Complex repeater circuits may use dynamic logic to turn on output drivers responsive to a transition on an input node and subsequently turn these output drivers off after the transition has been driven on an output node.
In some cases, the length of a signal path between two points on an IC die may have a propagation time that is longer than a clock cycle at which the IC operates. Accordingly, it may be necessary to store the state of the transmitted signal across a clock boundary. One solution for such a situation is to use a flip-flop, rather than using a repeater circuit.